History of Mundiferrum

Mundiferrum began as multiple distinct political entities, the most notable of which was the Kingdom of Isoland, the Kingdom of Joyeuse, the Confederate States of the Eisen, and the Duchy of Pardon. Long story short, the power of the King of Isoland was never that great in the first place, the Kingdom of Joyeuse gradually lost territory to its neighboring kingdoms, the Confederate States of the Eisen became the Federal Republic of the Eisen, and the Duchy of Pardon grew enough in power to become a Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Pardon, with its ambitious absolutist monarch, King Gilbert I, then began assimilating bits of Isoland and Joyeuse into his territory, though keeping the privileges of the lords whose lands he took over in order to ease his expansion. Eventually, this king died, and was replaced by an even more ambitious and capable son, King Walter I, who performed three very notable things: he incorporated the conquered territories of Joyeuse directly into his domain, he married into the line of the King of Isoland, and he began assembling his troops at the border with the Eisen.

The people of the Eisen expected the war for their country to be a quick victory -- instead, because of a storm-blown avalanche that seemed to them very much like an act of God, it proved a quick defeat. Right after this glorious victory, the King suddenly had to turn his armies back, as the nobles of Isoland decided to rebel against his possible, total dominion: and so the first articles of the Constitution of Mundiferrum was born, as he incorporated the Eisen as a Republic.

King Walter I died warring against Isoland, and was succeeded by his brother, King James Matthew I, who openly asserted Pardon's claim to all of Isoland. This war was a hard fought victory, but like his father and his grandfather before him, he limited his absolutist policies to his own domains, adopting the crown of Isoland as-is. This wholesale adoption of Isolandian law did present a few complications, however, as the council of the Eisen demanded the same level of independence for all of the Eisen as for the lords of Isoland, while the lords of Isoland feared that their serfs may be released from bondage according to the democratic principles of the Eisen.

The crisis proceeded even unto the reign of King James Matthew I's son, King Walter II, whose regent, his uncle Prince Shirley, chose to resolve it by assembling the first National Assembly. This assembly was composed of King Walter II's personal advisors, the highest lords of Isoland, the Patriarch of the Isolandian Church (whose domain, the city of Amour, remained independent of the Kingdom), and the Federal Council of the Eisen. Although the assembly was dominated by the Regent's presence, the King and Regent together proved mild enough to approve of three things: the organization of a Constitutional Commission, who would investigate the feasibility of uniting the laws which kept the King's hold over his dominions while leaving the three states relatively sovereign; the official union of the Isolandian Church with the rest of the Kingdom, with the King becoming the de jure head of church; and, as a concession to the Eisen, whose population had a notable heterodox minority, the renaming of the Kingdom to Mundiferrum.

And thus, the Constitution of Mundiferrum was compiled a few years into the full accession of King Walter II to the throne. The Eisen would remain a republic, with its de jure president in perpetuum the King, yet most of its de facto power remaining, as before, with its Federal Assembly and Council; Isoland would remain a decentralized collection of feudal domains, with the abolishment of serfdom resulting in Isoland's return to independence; and Pardon would remain an absolute monarchy. The National Assembly would also remain, although with additional representatives from all states involved, and with all its actions having to be approved by the King. Finally, the Isolandian Church, becoming the official religion of the entire nation, would have a ten percent share of all taxes collected from the states, representing its citizens' tithes.

King Walter II was succeeded by King Gilbert II, a relatively unremarkable ruler who died young. His regent, Princess Diana, then assumed the throne, and her reign proved to be unpopular, as she had been raised in the Heterodox cantons of the Eisen. She was succeeded by her sister Queen Marilla, whose reign was much more welcome: she rolled back Queen Diana's new freedoms, restricting them to the Eisen and the metropoles, and she ushered in a series of reforms to restrict the military powers of the Isolandian nobles and to grant reasonable freedoms to their serfs.

At this point, the original line of the kings of Pardon ended. Prince Shirley managed peace with the Kingdom of Joyeuse by having his daughter marry into their line, and with the accession of two consecutive queens, the King of Joyeuse, King Ozymandias I, believed he had a claim, while the citizens of the Eisen believed they had a way out. Thus, a civil war began, culminating in King Ozymandias I successfully marching in to Pardon's capital, Le Repose Sauvage, the Isolandians finally recognizing him as sovereign, and the Eisen being beaten back into submission.

King Ozymandias I, though a powerful ruler, was also a little crazy, having renamed Joyeuse's capital Champion after himself. He chose also to enforce his reign by circumventing the usual laws of dynastic succession and claiming his line to be a continuation of Mundiferrum's former ruling house, Idlewild. Finally, as a grave insult to the freshly rebelled states of the Eisen, he forced them to acknowledge him, not merely as President, but as Emperor, even as he remained King over the rest of Mundiferrum.

His madness, however, was mitigated by his son, Sethos, who de facto ruled the Kingdom, expanding the powers of the assembly, further reforming the feudal system of Isoland, and establishing the Mundiferrum National Armed Forces, a standardized union of all Mundiferrum's relatively sovereign militaries.

Prince Sethos died leaving a son, Ozymandias, who succeeded King Ozymandias I. King Ozymandias II set, for his goal, to reclaim the rest of Joyeuse, and to establish Mundiferrum as an international power, at least down in the Mediterranean. The first of these goals, he never received the approval of the Assembly to enact; the second, he had only just started with, establishing a colony on the content just south of Mundiferrum, before he died of that infamous disease, Retcolic. The current ruler of Mundiferrum is his fresh-faced daughter, Queen Thouris, who was lucky enough to have convinced her father to change the rule of succession officially to Absolute Primogeniture.